Blacks, Violence and Honor Cultures

Against the backdrop of a generally more violent world, Blacks own the statistical lead for behaving violently towards others, and against their own. But they are far from being alone. Some will say that selective pursuit, prosecution or reporting is what drives up these group numbers, but this chicken-versus-egg argument does not cut it. Rather than ignore or deny, or blame others, I looked for research that might help explain this phenomenon. I have not seen any evidence that Blacks are genetically pre-disposed to higher violence than others.

I have never lived in the South, but found two avenues that are the drivers for ‘honor cultures’, those societies prone to higher violence in order to maintain protective reputations of strength and toughness (here). The first is the correlation of violence to economic vulnerability, and the second is its correlation to weak compliance systems (enforcement), both attributes of the early and colonial White South. Even today, southern White men are significantly more violent than their northern peers. Black men, alternately, show no geographical bias in their behavior, as you would expect, given their recent migration to all parts of the US from the South.

But before they were in the South, Blacks were in West Africa, also plagued by societies of economic vulnerability and weak compliance, even prior to colonialism. So, the honor culture of the South’s clanish, herding, Scotch-Irish settlers was wholly consistent with West African tribal character. Add to this, the modern-day insular urban areas where Blacks live, with continuing economic vulnerability and localized codes of enforcement and response, and the result is more violence and crime. Lastly, there is a spill-over effect as northern culture and southern-influenced black culture cross migratory paths north and west of the Mason-Dixon. Researchers would expect a higher rate of black-on-white and black-on-black crime, given these historical influences.

This post barely scratches the surface, but it points the way to understanding the interplay between job opportunity (legitimate work) and law enforcement (threat of punishment from illegitimate 'work'). With respect to punishment, we need to either punish offenders much more harshly or honestly attempt to rehabilitate them (my vote). Simply locking them up for some amount of time is no effective deterrent. Any attempt to rehabilitate must put real salable skills into the hands of offenders, and says we should consider making a GED (minimum skills) a requirement for parole, regardless of the offense.

James C. Collier

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